History of Atchison County, Kansas

by Sheffield Ingalls

THOMAS O. PLUMMER.

There is some distinction in being a pioneer in the State of Kansas, and there is certainly considerable distinction coming to the man who can justly lay claim to being the first white child born of pioneer parents in a component part of a great county like Atchison. Thomas O. Plummer, prosperous farmer and stockman of Grasshopper township, Atchison county, is the first white child born within the borders of his township, and has lived all of his fifty-nine years within the borders of the township.

T. O. Plummer and wife

T. O. Plummer was born December 6, 1857, a son of Leven Vincent and Matilda (Norman) Plummer, both of whom were born in Kentucky. Leven Vincent was a son of Lewis Plummer, a native of Germany, who immigrated to America when quite young and married a Miss Vincent in Kentucky. She (his wife) was a daughter of English parents and was a large woman. The fact that her descendants are all men of large physique is explanatory of the inheritance of strength and size which predominates in the men of the Plummer family. The mother of Thomas O. was a daughter of Lewis Norman, a Kentucky pioneer and expert blacksmith, who was of French-English descent. He (Lewis) was a maker of plows and farming implements which he would manufacture in his shop, load on a river boat and sell in the towns and villages on the banks of the Ohio river. On one of his trading expeditions he was shot by the crew of a rival trading boat.

Leven Vincent Plummer was the father of eight children, as follows: Mary Elizabeth Baker, Oklahoma; Dempsey died at the age of sixteen years; Charles died in 1907; Thomas O. and Benjamin F., (twins), Arrington, Kan.; Leonidas, Atchison; Commodore, Oklahoma; Harriet Ratley, Cowley county, Kansas; Lucullus, on old home place.

In the year 1854 he left Kentucky and migrated to Platte county, Missouri, where he resided until 1855 and then made a settlement in Grasshopper township, Atchison county. He was the first white settler on Brush creek in the Kickapoo Indian reservation lands. He did his trading at old Kennekuk. It is recalled that the old Mormon trail passed by his home and Mr. Plummer remembers the story of a large party of Mormon immigrants being stricken with the cholera and over 100 of them died as a result of the terrible attack of the dread disease. The dead bodies of the victims were hurriedly buried in shallow graves, but, unfortunately were rooted up by hogs owned by the Indians. Inasmuch as the white settlers were afraid to bury the bodies again the hogs were permitted to eat the bodies. Leven Plummer was on extremely good terms with the Indians of the neighborhood and several of them worked for him at different times. When the Indians disposed of their land holdings to the Government and moved to a new reservation, he purchased of them 100 of their “razorback” hogs and 10,000 fence rails at a cost of ten cents a hundred rails. He hauled the rails to his place in immense wagon loads, hauled by two yoke of oxen and a team of horses. He became fairly well to do and was a large feeder of live stock, frequently feeding as high as 100 head of cattle, four-year-old steers and 400 head of hogs. He died in 1867, at the age of forty-seven years, leaving eight children to the care of his widow. Leven Plummer was noted as one of the strongest men of his day and was a man of large stature who could perform feats of strength which would appall the average man.

Thomas O. Plummer attended the district school of his neighborhood and when twenty-one years of age began for himself. His first employment away from home was for six months with Martin W. Ham. He then worked for a bachelor neighbor at ten dollars per month. In 1879 he began renting land on his own account. From boyhood he has always had to hustle for himself and has made good. He made his first purchase of land in 1893 and has accumulated a total of 241 acres of well improved farm lands in Grasshopper township.

In 1884 Mr. Plummer was united in marriage with Mary Ratley, and the union was blessed with one son, James Oliver Plummer, who is now the efficient superintendent of highways in the township. Mary (Ratley) Plummer was the daughter of John and Hannah Ratley, and departed this life in September 15, 1887. In September of 1893, Mr. Plummer was again married to Miss Mary E. Clark, who has borne him one child, Thomas McKinley Plummer, who as a youth attended the agricultural college at Manhattan, Kan., and is much interested in scientific farming. Mrs. Mary (Clark) Plummer died March 13, 1908. She was a daughter of P. J. Clark, a very early settler of Atchison county, and formerly a member of the Atchison city police force. The third marriage of Thomas O. Plummer occurred March 2, 1909, with Mrs. Bessie May De Bord (Floyd), widow of James Floyd, a native of Kentucky, and to this union have been born two children: Theodore Ole, and Calvin Vincent Plummer. By her first marriage, Mrs. Plummer has one child, Ruby Jewell Floyd, born September 30, 1905.

Mr. Plummer is one of Atchison county’s best known and successful self-made men and everything he owns has been earned by hard labor and diligence, combined with good management. Besides his farming interests he is a stockholder in the Farmers Grain Elevator and the Mutual Telephone Company, at Muscotah. He is a Republican in politics, and is a member of the Mystic Workers and the Modern Woodmen of America.